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Free Agency Awaits David West

The 2013 free agency class will be headlined by All-Stars Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum next summer, but the crop figures to be a deep group at every position well beyond the headliners.

One of the players expected to attract plenty of attention from executives around the league in free agency is Indiana Pacers forward David West. The veteran is in the last year of his contract, a two-year $20 million deal, signed in December 2011. The last time West was in this position he was in the process of recovering from a torn left ACL suffered at the end of the 2011 campaign.

One of West’s primary objectives this season is to prove to everyone his knee is fully recovered after working his way back most of last season.

“I feel like I’m in pretty good shape as far as my health” West said to HOOPSWORLD. “I feel one hundred times better than last year just coming off the knee surgery.”

West, 32, is at the age where most frontcourt players start to decline but the veteran has been hot to start the season averaging 16.7 points and 8.6 rebounds through the Pacers’ first seven games.

Given his age and recent knee injury West knows the microscope is focused on his game more than ever, but he says he won’t let his uncertain future become a distraction.

“I’m just trying to have a productive year,” West said regarding his goal headed into free agency. “I don’t really base my play on what’s out there looming. I just try to go out do my job and stay focused on the moment and what we have to do to right now.”

The Pacers already have $57 million in committed salary on the books for the 2013-14 season, after new deals for Roy Hibbert, Ian Mahinmi and Gerald Green were reached this past summer. Emerging forward Paul George could potentially test the market at the end of the 2014-15 campaign as well, making the need for the small market Pacers to keep an eye on expenses on the top of their agenda.

While West wants to be a Pacer long term he acknowledges there could be financial challenges, which stand in the way. For now West wants to concentrate on winning games, believing the rest will play itself out at the appropriate time.

“It’s one of those situations,” West said when asked if he wanted to remain in Indiana long term. “My main objective is to try to win [here]. I feel like this group has an opportunity to do that. Obviously with Danny [Granger] out it changes and makes things a little more difficult for us this year, but again we feel like with the group that we have and with Danny at full strength we can compete.”

The Pacers will be without the services of former All-Star and leading scorer Danny Granger for the next three months as he nurses a knee injury. Indiana will need West’s production during this time to stay in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff mix.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I concerly hope the Pacers re-sign him. He's been our only constant.

He's a great leader for this young team. The 2 year contract which he signed was a short contract to test his knee (which to me seems fine now). Given his age, I'd be happy if we gave him $35-$40 million over 3 years.

"So, which one of you guys is going to come in second?" - Larry Bird before the 3 point contest. He won.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

Pacers need to trade him, get something of value before losing him for nothing, Im expecting that at some point the Pacers learn their leason, or they can get burn again if they feel like it.

I agree with you on this sort of thing for once. Pacers can't stand pat on this front court. I would move one of Hibbert or West this season. Depending on who can bring higher return. Sucks to say that because I like both of them, but the fact is we're sort of between a rock and a hard place at the moment when it comes to how to move forward. We still need to make moves, and while PG will never be a superstar he is too damn versatile IMO to just toss away unless someone offers you a huge package for him, but I just don't see that happening. So West or Hibbert seems to be the best place to bring in some assets. I know that opinion is not going to be incredibly popular, but I think it's pretty true about the team right now unless Roy starts scoring 15 a night at a 50% shooting clip all of a sudden.

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Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

There will be several PF options in FA next summer (Jefferson, Milsap, Josh Smith, West, Landry, etc), so that should drive the price down somewhat. I would hope we could get West or Landry for 3 years 25M and resign Hansbrough as a backup for 3-4M per season. Smith, Milsap, and Jefferson will cost more. We have plenty of room under the cap next summer to spend that kind of money, the issue is the following year when both Granger and PG are entering free agency. Next summer, if we invest 12M/yr for both the starting and backup PF positions, we are at $44M without resigning Granger, PG, Stephenson, a backup PG, and rounding out the roster with 3-4 additional players. Let's assume Stephenson, a good backup PG, and the remaining roster players cost $8M/yr, we are at $52M or only $20M under the luxury tax with no starting wings. PG will cost us $12M + per year, which means either Danny will take a paycut to $8M or less or we look elsewhere.

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Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

If you trade one you trade West as he is older. In the long term you are more likely to get a better return than on Hibbert. It seems to me West is at a point in his career where I think he would take less to stay with or go to a championship contender than a non-contender, which could bode well for us re-signing him.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

He's making $10 million per Season now....he's going to demand more (and most likely it)

Unless you think West is an undeniable go-to guy that you can count on for 70+ games per year, you can't pay him that much money. He's a #2 or #3 player... you can't give him $11-12M a year. And we won't.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

Unless you think West is an undeniable go-to guy that you can count on for 70+ games per year, you can't pay him that much money. He's a #2 or #3 player... you can't give him $11-12M a year. And we won't.

I do think all of that about him actually, but I agree that 12 million will be too much for us to pay. Someone else will though, and that sucks. West is my favorite player to watch right now.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I do think all of that about him actually, but I agree that 12 million will be too much for us to pay. Someone else will though, and that sucks. West is my favorite player to watch right now.

The question is who is willing to pay that? If it is the Wizards I am betting he will take 9 or 10 million to stay here and a chance for a championship. If it is another contender, well then we might be screwed.

The question is who is willing to pay that? If it is the Wizards I am betting he will take 9 or 10 million to stay here and a chance for a championship. If it is another contender, well then we might be screwed.

He's a young kid with a lot of potential. If he hits the open market in two years some team (Kings, Hornets, Mavericks, Wolves, etc) is going to give him a max- or near-max contact offer. And he isn't going to take a huge discount on his first NBA contract. We'd have to match a huge offer to keep him.

I forget.....even as a UFA.....are the Pacers allowed to go over the Salary Cap to sign West?

I know that as a RFA...the Pacers can go over the SalaryCap to sign their own RFAs...but I don't know if the same applies to UFAs.

BTW....if there is any Player that would likely be traded before the February 2012-2013 Trade deadline....my $$$ is on the older Hansbrough.....not West. Also...IMHO...I think that Granger will likely be moved in the 2013-2014 offseason.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I'm not sure he'll be able to get that on the open market, but all of these scenarios in which you replace West with a younger PF are still missing something...

We're back to the 2010 Pacers, a nice team without a go-to guy.

Our go-to guy is only costing us $10 mil/ season, and that's quite a bargain for proven go-to guys.

If the money gets that tight, somebody else needs to be the one talking a walk or traded for a bit of cap relief.

Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

The question is who is willing to pay that? If it is the Wizards I am betting he will take 9 or 10 million to stay here and a chance for a championship. If it is another contender, well then we might be screwed.

The question is which Teams have the Capspace to make an offer at 9 to 10 mil a year.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I agree with you on this sort of thing for once. Pacers can't stand pat on this front court. I would move one of Hibbert or West this season. Depending on who can bring higher return. Sucks to say that because I like both of them, but the fact is we're sort of between a rock and a hard place at the moment when it comes to how to move forward. We still need to make moves, and while PG will never be a superstar he is too damn versatile IMO to just toss away unless someone offers you a huge package for him, but I just don't see that happening. So West or Hibbert seems to be the best place to bring in some assets. I know that opinion is not going to be incredibly popular, but I think it's pretty true about the team right now unless Roy starts scoring 15 a night at a 50% shooting clip all of a sudden.

Roy is not going anywhere, Danny doesn't have any value, Hill is not going anywhere, Paul George is not going anywhere, at this point the Pacers need to realize that without Danny they are not going anywhere, not only that but I don't think we can expect Danny to be 100% healthy ever again(like Dunleavy).

The Pacers only asset is West, he is not part of the future and the Pacers are probably going lose him for nothing, trade him to a team that feels like they need one more piece to compete and try to get one or two young pieces plus picks for the future, at some point the Pacers front office has to do what is best for the franchise.

Here are some teams that could probably trade for West: Houston, Atlanta, SA, OKC, Boston, Denver, GS, maybe more teams.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

Roy is not going anywhere, Danny doesn't have any value, Hill is not going anywhere, Paul George is not going anywhere, at this point the Pacers need to realize that without Danny they are not going anywhere, not only that but I don't think we can expect Danny to be 100% healthy ever again(like Dunleavy).

The Pacers only asset is West, he is not part of the future and the Pacers are probably going lose him for nothing, trade him to a team that feels like they need one more piece to compete and try to get one or two young pieces plus picks for the future, at some point the Pacers front office has to do what is best for the franchise.

Here are some teams that could probably trade for West: Houston, Atlanta, SA, OKC, Boston, Denver, GS, maybe more teams.

I don't think we're going anywhere this season now that Granger's missing most of it, but we can't flat out admit that we're giving up and trade West. I don't see us getting anything of worth in return either, tbh.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I'm not sure he'll be able to get that on the open market, but all of these scenarios in which you replace West with a younger PF are still missing something...

We're back to the 2010 Pacers, a nice team without a go-to guy.

Our go-to guy is only costing us $10 mil/ season, and that's quite a bargain for proven go-to guys.

If the money gets that tight, somebody else needs to be the one talking a walk or traded for a bit of cap relief.

He's not as tough and may not be a BAMF....but Paul Milsap is a UFA. I'm pretty sure that the Jazz aren't going to re-sign him given the rest of their young Frontcourt that they have to give minutes to.

We all know that the Pacers ( or at least Bird ) has been interested in him for the longest time. If the Rockets don't go after him ( which IMHO...they will before the trade deadline ), I'd hope that the Pacer go after him if West isn't going to be an option.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

couple of minor details. Lance is under contract for the 13-14 season. FWIW, his contract is non-guaranteed. i believe he is a RFA after that.

If a team has Bird rights on a player, they can go over the salary cap to pay him. Doesn't matter if he is a UFA or not. The Pacers will have 'early Bird' rights to David West. That means they can sign him for 175% of his salary or the max salary. I believe that means the Pacers could pay up to $17.5M for David West. Pretty sure they won't, but they could.

I forget.....even as a UFA.....are the Pacers allowed to go over the Salary Cap to sign West?

I know that as a RFA...the Pacers can go over the SalaryCap to sign their own RFAs...but I don't know if the same applies to UFAs.

BTW....if there is any Player that would likely be traded before the February 2012-2013 Trade deadline....my $$$ is on the older Hansbrough.....not West. Also...IMHO...I think that Granger will likely be moved in the 2013-2014 offseason.

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

Wouldn't it be smarter for us to sit on West through the All-Star break, and see what contending teams would need a BAMF PF? Then we give Danny's injury time to recover, and can assess our finals run before trading. An injury laden team with deep finals hopes could be willing to give up quite a bit to get that final piece to help push them over the edge....

Re: Free Agency Awaits David West

I'm not sure he'll be able to get that on the open market, but all of these scenarios in which you replace West with a younger PF are still missing something...

We're back to the 2010 Pacers, a nice team without a go-to guy.

Our go-to guy is only costing us $10 mil/ season, and that's quite a bargain for proven go-to guys.

If the money gets that tight, somebody else needs to be the one talking a walk or traded for a bit of cap relief.

A go-to guy that's not part of the future, they need to trade him while he has some value instead of letting him sign with another team, not only that but if they sign him long term I think there is a huge chance that he becomes a burden like Foster,JO,Ford,etc.

By the way we need to realize that this team(without Danny) is not a contender, hopefully the Pacers realize this and start some small rebuilding while keeping Roy,PG and Hill as part of their future core.